At present, in the industries, aeronautics, nuclear and oil is being considered as part of its operational policies and security, the preserving the mechanical integrity in their mobile and stationary installations, through actions of maintenance and inspection, which in its most are made with components operating without shutdowns of the plant, especially with regard to inspection.
In the case of the oil industry, through inspection by nondestructive testing is obtained information about the discontinuities and defects in the static components such as pressure vessels and piping in service, information necessary to determine the structural condition of these components and their remaining life time, which helps prevent potential problems and decisions relevant for repairs or maintenance, actions necessary to preserve the structural integrity and therefore the safety of installations.
Particularly in installations of process in the oil offshore platforms there are a lot of pipes, which require periodic inspection to assess their mechanical integrity and increase reliability and security in its functionality, with the particularity that are installed in plants in high seas, in confined spaces at different levels, even “in the air” out of the main structure of the platform, making it difficult inspection, necessitating use at least structures of tubular scaffolding, hanging scaffolding, and ladders, to be in direct contact with the pipes, however the handling and safe installation of these scaffolds turns out to be a process that requires a significant investment of time additional to the activities of inspection of extensions considerably large of pipes, said logistics process includes handling of this tool in plant facilities and installation at every point where there are inaccesible pipes, often it turns out to be a limiting factor for the complete inspection of the plant.
To provide a solution to the limitations mentioned above, Zollinger William T and Treanor Richard C, in the publication of patent application, U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,006A discloses an apparatus for inspecting pipes for use with vehicles to carry out internal inspections surfaces of pipes, which is formed by a front assembly, a back assembly and a central support connected to said assemblies, and an arm for mounting an inspection instrument. This arm has an arm “and” distally mounted for the axial alinement of measuring instrument and a mounting block and a linear actuator for moving the arm to extend the inspection instrument radially out of its position. The apparatus also comprises a rotation motor and gear assembly for rotation of the central support and the front assembly with respect to the rear assembly for inspection through of azimuthal scanning inside the pipe.
Also Barborak Darren M and Bruce William A described in patent publication, U.S. Pat. No. 5,362,962A, a system of measurement of corrosion and a method for measurement and evaluation in significant portions of straight and curved sections of pipes and other surfaces, using an laser instrument with laser light projection through the scan area, which includes corrosion. A positioning mechanism moves the laser instrument along the surface to allow evaluation of the area and a processor controls the operation of both the laser and positioning. An automatic process by the processor converts the surface in an output device.
In view of the foregoing, it is therefore necessary to provide a apparatus of measuring external corrosion of the pipe for an inspection robot, compactly, light weight, small size to allow external inspection of pipes complex arrangements, with obstacles for corrosion, welding or any other irregularity and small thicknesses from four inches in diameter, which allows implement the inspection of corrosion. The present invention can be widely used for maintenance and inspection of pipelines or storage tanks.